David G. Penney, Ph.D. - A Brief Sketch:

Major Academic Appointments: - Dr. David G. Penney is (full) Professor of Physiology and Adjunct Professor of Occupational and Environmental Health at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI. He is also Director of Surgical Research at Providence Hospital, Southfield, MI.

Education: - He holds a Bachelors Degree in Biology and Chemistry from Wayne State University, Detroit (1963), a Masters Degree in Insect Physiology from the University of California, Los Angeles (1966), and a Ph.D. in Physiology and Biochemistry from UCLA (1969).

General Experience: - Professor Penney has wide experience in teaching at the undergraduate, graduate, medical student, and postgraduate levels. His long experience as consultant to departments of cardiology, obstetrics and gynecology, pathology, emergency medicine, and surgery make him equally at home working in basic science and clinical settings. His more than 30-year experience with CARBON MONOXIDE (CO) toxicology in animals and humans makes him one of the world experts on the topic. Dr. Penney does not consider himself a general or medical toxicologist (ie. one who knows a little about 100s or 1000s of substances), but instead the inverse, one who concentrates on one substance only, ie. carbon monoxide.

Current Professional Interests: - He is interested in all aspects of CO toxicology research and education. Human responses to CO are now paramount in his work, and the communication of information on that topic to other professionals and the public. Vehicles for doing that include professional meetings, review articles, books and the web (eg. CO HQ). He has special interests in the medical / legal aspects of CO toxicology, domestic and industrial. While he is very familiar with the effects of acute CO poisonings, involving either survival or non-survival, he is also one of a few experts in the world on chronic, lower-level CO poisoning.

Research Experience: - Dr. Penney has carried out research on a wide variety of topics and areas including: intermediary metabolism, cardiac mechanics, comparative animal physiology, toxicology, fetal development, hypertension, experimental cardiology, general surgery, and others. His most extensive studies have been of the toxicology of CO in animals and humans.

Publications: - He has published over 120 peer reviewed research articles in medical/scientific journals. He currently has to his credit more that twice the number of publications on CO than any other single person in the world! A literature search carried out through MedLine confirms this fact. In addition, there are nearly 100 abstracts of papers presented at scientific meetings, more than a dozen and a half review articles, and several books.

Carbon Monoxide Work: - Professor Penney is a pioneer in the study of CO as it affects animals and humans. His efforts on this topic began in the early 1970s with basic science studies of the way in which CO acts on the cardiovascular and hematologic systems. These studies funded at times by the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, and others, evolved to encompass other approaches including developmental and neurologic actions of CO, and involving both acute and chronic exposure protocols.

National/International Honors and Participation: - Dr. David Penney has served on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) panels setting threshold limit standards for CO in three decades, beginning 1979, 1989, and 1999. These select panels were responsible for setting outdoor air standards for the entire United States. In 1997, he was chosen to sit on a World Health Organization (WHO) panel of 12 experts from around the world, whose charge it was to set similar CO standards for the entire world through the United Nations. In 1998 he advised the Australian Medical Association in a national problem involving CO. He has lectured on CO throughout the USA, U.K., and elsewhere. This year (2002), he will be giving addresses on CO to the Michigan State Organization of Industrial Hygienists, and to the United States Navy Environmental group in Virginia.

Carbon Monoxide, The Books: - Among nearly a one-half dozen books published by Dr. Penney in the last few years, Carbon Monoxide, is particularly noteworthy. It is a technical monograph enclosing chapters by 13 other CO experts from around the world chosen by Dr. Penney, and by Penney himself. It was the first new serious academic book on CO to be available in nearly 20 years. Another new and more extensive book on CO, Carbon Monoxide Toxicity, was published in the year 2000. A third book in the series on CO is now in the planning stages. Dr. Penney contributed significantly to another book on CO, published by WHO in 1999 - Environmental Health Criteria 213:
Carbon Monoxide.